The Zoologist — June, 1868. 1251 



March 18. Have observed a very decided increase in the number of 

 our meadow pipits, particularly in the marshes, where they are in the 

 summer months very plentifully distributed. The greater portion of 

 these summer residents leave the district in the autumn. 



April 2. Golden plover last seen and heard. 



April 3. Wheatear (female) first seen. 



April 8 and 5. On the 3rd of this month I saw several hundred 

 fieldfares on the trees in Riby Park ; and on the 5th flocks of these 

 birds in the low grounds bordering our small stream. They are evi- 

 dently drawing towards the coast preparatory to the spring migration. 



Hooded Crow catching and eating Frogs. — April 6. Hooded crow 

 last seen. There is a circumstance connected with the habits 

 of these birds which I am not aware has been remarked upon, 

 namely, their partiality for catching and eating frogs. When the 

 first warm flush of spring draws these Amphibians from their 

 snug winter retreats — the hollow banks and soft muddy bottoms 

 of our shallow drains, — and their soft purring croak is heard, as 

 they bask and sprawl in the shallows, then is the time for the 

 "hoodie": even the strong inducement of early-sprouting beans 

 tempts him not to quit his favourite haunt, where he and his mate now 

 feast right sumptuously, acting the part of the stork in the fable, as he 

 sedately wades in the shallows. Woe to the slowly-swimming croaker 

 that now comes within reach of his trenchant beak; sudden as thought 

 he is grasped on the terrible shears, borne aloft to the nearest bank- 

 top to be quickly pulled limb from limb and devoured. So engrossed 

 are these birds in frog-catching that their usual cautious habits are 

 abated. Many is the gray-backed forager that has fallen to my gun as he 

 rose bewildered and surprised from the drain, and I rejoiced that there 

 would be one plunderer less to harry the moorcock's nest on a Scottish 

 hill side. Judging from the many crows thus employed in frog-fishing 

 in the early spring, the havoc made in these frog- colonies must be 

 great. The only portion that is not eaten is the spawn of the female 

 frog. Before I was aware of this habit of the hooded crows I have 

 often wondered where the lumps of spawn came from we so constantly 

 at this season find on the drain-banks. 



April 11. Young rooks hatched. 



April 11. Chaffinches have not yet paired. I saw a large flock to- 

 day perched on the larch in one of the plantations. This flock was 

 entirely composed of females: I did not observe a single male bird, 

 although I looked carefully amongst them. 



